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Cell cycle

Degradation ensures integrity

Nature volume 423, pages 818–819 (2003)Cite this article

Protein degradation terminates a range of biochemical activities in living cells. New work shows that a component of the 'licensing' system for DNA replication must be degraded to prevent re-replication during cell division.

How would you ensure that a biochemical reaction is irreversible? This is a key problem in living organisms, because many of their control systems must progress unidirectionally through a series of different states. During the cell-division cycle, for instance, chromosomal DNA must first be duplicated (in the so-called S phase), and then the two copies must be segregated to daughter cells (during mitosis). Organisms usually solve the problem of irreversibility by inactivating the proteins that catalyse each biochemical reaction after they have carried out their task. There are several ways of achieving this, but the most direct is simply to destroy the proteins. For example, it is known that the exit from mitosis is rendered irreversible by the degradation of mitotic proteins. Elsewhere in this issue (page 885), Zhong and colleagues1 show that the ability to precisely replicate chromosomal DNA also depends on protein degradation. Zhong et al. identify the protein CUL-4 as being essential for the timely degradation of another protein, CDT-1, which is a component of the cellular system that 'licenses' DNA replication. In the absence of CUL-4, cells continuously replicate their DNA without progressing into mitosis.

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Figure 1: Protein degradation and the cell cycle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Cancer Research UK Chromosome Replication Research Group, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK

    Anatoliy Li & J. Julian Blow

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  1. Anatoliy Li
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  2. J. Julian Blow
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Correspondence to J. Julian Blow.

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Li, A., Blow, J. Degradation ensures integrity. Nature 423, 818–819 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/423818b

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